Leaves of Gold        

acrylic on canvas 12” x 12”

 

The intricacy of a leaf, especially when most of it has decayed and the lacy skeleton is all that remains, has long reminded me of jewelry. When walking along, looking down at decayed leaves on the ground, I can completely lose myself in thoughts of the mystery of beauty growing out of decay. How wondrous that a thing can become more beautiful when the bulk of it has been stripped away. I think of the leaves in this painting as retaining only the remnant, original shape of themselves with all else that used to define them having been replaced with a type of heavenly gold—they have become jewels.